Along with the big countries, there are many small independent states, and some are so tiny that they are called microstates. The smallest one of them is the Vatican City (Holy See), it actually occupies only an old quarter with a few buildings and parks in the center of Rome (Italy). Perhaps it is the most unusual country with own government, army, diplomatic missions, but without permanent native population (the citizenship is granted only to persons who work in the Vatican and its missions abroad).
Many other countries ranked in the top 30 of our list have some common features. Most of them are European microstates or the tiny islands in the Caribbean, the South Pacific and Indian Ocean (mostly the former overseas colonies gained their independence in the second half of the 20th century). Further, in the table below you can find more known nations ranked by total area, and also see neighbors with whom they share land borders.
Note that the list includes only officially recognized independent states, and excludes dependent territories. For example, you cannot find here the Puerto Rico (it is a part of the USA), and also the Bermuda (it is the British overseas territory). This is a list of the world's countries and their dependent territories by area, ranked by total area. Entries in this list include, but are not limited to, those in the ISO 3166-1 standard, which includes sovereign states and dependent territories. Largely unrecognised states not in ISO 3166-1 are included in the list in ranked order, but are not given a rank number. The areas of such largely unrecognised states are in most cases also included in the areas of the more widely recognised states that claim the same territory; see the notes in the "notes" column for each country for clarification.
Not included in the list are individual country claims to parts of the continent of Antarctica, entities such as the European Union that have some degree of sovereignty but do not consider themselves to be sovereign countries or dependent territories, and unrecognised micronations such as the Principality of Sealand.
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